December 2016
Wellness, Productivity, and You!
UCONN Health EAP 860-679-2877 or 800-852-4392
Marijuana:
Just Don’t
Use It
In
Colorado, the
number of fatal
car crashes with
drivers testing positive for marijuana has doubled in the past six
years. Colorado now ranks No. 1 out of 50 states, with more of
its young people ages 12 to 17 using cannabis, according to
the report titled “The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The
Impact,” which was released this September. Although not
widely reported, dozens of adverse effects from marijuana legalization have been cataloged, including risk of respiratory
illness, dependence, mental health–related problems, and other
issues affecting public health, such as impaired driving. The
American Medical Society on Addiction Medicine, the country’s
leading expert on addiction, opposes legalization, stating that
61 percent of all drug-addicted persons (other than alcoholics)
use marijuana.
Sources: 2016 Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado Report at http://www.rmhidta.org (search “reports”);
ASAM.org (http://www.asam.org/advocacy/find-a-policy-statement)
Hot Tip for Resisting
Holiday Overeating
H
ere come the holidays—and the
eating and the guilt. Wait! Here’s
an idea from research conducted by Vanessa Patrick, Ph.D. During the holidays, when you come face
to face with tempting food, try saying,
“I don’t eat that!” Research discovered
that 80 percent of women who used
those words stuck with their good eating habits compared with
10 percent of women who said, “I can’t.” Amazingly, saying “I
can’t” gives you less of a sense of empowerment than saying “I
don’t.”
Source: http://www.bauer.uh.edu/vpatrick/docs/DontversusCant.pdf
Know Your Positive
Personal Attributes
E
mployers not only want employees with the right skills and
abilities, but also they want positive personal attributes. Could you
describe your positive attributes?
The ability to discuss them shows
your personal insight and adds energy to any job interview, making
you stand out in ways that many
other applicants do not. Examples of
personal attributes are the following: flexible and adaptable,
ability to work unsupervised, taking initiative, getting along
well with others, willing and eager to learn, communicating
effectively, thoughtful and reflective about issues/problems,
able to be self-critical, seeking unique ways around problems, asking questions, and tolerating uncertainty well.
Is Pessimism
Bad for Your
Heart?
A
pessimistic attitude increases the risk for death
from heart disease, a new
study reports. For 11 years, researchers in Finland followed thousands of men and women
ages 52 to 76. They discovered that pessimism toward life
events and circumstances doubled the chance of dying of
heart disease, and that optimistic persons had fewer cardiac
deaths. To be less pessimistic, don’t focus on stopping pessimistic thinking. Instead, practice optimistic responses to both
positive and negative events in your life. Positive thinking may
not help you live longer as this study showed, but it may help
insulate you from poor cardiac health by giving you better reflexes that improve resilience to life stressors.
Source: http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com (search “pessimism”)
Information in FrontLine Employee is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the counsel or advice of a qualified health or legal professional. For further help, questions, or referral to community
resources for specific problems or personal concerns, contact a qualified professional. Add “http://” to source links to follow. Link titles are always case sensitive.
December 2016 FrontLine Employee
Soft Skills to Know:
Incivility Begets
Incivility
Managing
Conflict
A
ll workplaces experience
conflict, but not all employees
know how to manage conflict
well. Some avoid conflict, while others make conflict worse. Since conflict is considered normal and expected in work organizations, employees with conflict management skills are valued. Knowing how to
manage conflict is a learned skill with specific elements. Understanding what these elements are will allow you to see conflict as an opportunity, fear it less, and move quickly to turn conflicts into positive
outcomes for your organization. There are hundreds of books and
source documents on conflict management, and nearly all of them
discuss some or all of the following conflict management principles:
1) awareness and early recognition of a problem that may lead to
conflict, and seeing most conflicts as opportunities; 2) willingness to
be proactive and bring the problem to the attention of others; 3) gathering players to engage in the discovery of solutions; 4) engaging
willing and reluctant persons to become equal participants in identifying solutions; 5) recognition of emotional aspects of conflicts and the
capacity to move beyond emotions to find mutually satisfying solutions; 6) formalizing agreements that implement solutions; and 7)
monitoring results of agreements efficiently and intervening early to
make adjustments and reinforce positive outcomes. Knowing these
steps and making them part of your job skill repertoire will allow you
to conquer your anxiety and fear of workplace conflict to advance
your organization’s goals.
I Can’t Sleep!
S
eventy-five percent of
adults have reported experiencing sleep problems
at least a few nights a week or
more within the past year. This
continues a nearly 20-year upward trend of a number of
adults reporting sleep problems. See your doctor about persistent
sleep troubles. Evaluate whether the following suggestions from the
National Institutes of Health can aid you in getting more quality sleep:
1) Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. 2) Don’t sleep
in on weekends. Keep your weekday schedule. 3) One hour before
bed, stop work, wind down, and relax. Try taking a hot bath. 4) Avoid
heavy eating before bedtime. 5) Avoid alcoholic drinks, nicotine, and
caffeine before bed. 6) Try exercising five or six hours before bedtime.
7) Keep your bedroom cool and dark, and keep smartphones out of
your room.
Learn more: http://www.ninds.nih.gov (search “sleep tips”)
D
iscourteous and
rude behaviors,
such as making
derogatory remarks,
ignoring coworkers, and
using a condescending
tone, are examples of
incivility at work. These
behaviors have grown
worse in the past ten years. Being victimized by uncivil
behavior places you at risk of “paying it forward”—that
is, also participating in these behaviors. The earlier in
the day incivility occurs, the more likely it is passed
along. Incivility causes victims to lose attention at work
and expend emotional energy, because they ruminate
about the intentions of the perpetrator, mull over how
to respond, or spend time thinking or talking with others concerning what to do about it. This frustration and
emotional burden, according to one research study,
costs $14,000 per employee per year in lost productivity based on the amount of incivility experienced in the
average workplace! Remembering how incivility takes
its toll can help employees participate in it less.
Source: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/304498950
How to
Purchase
Safe Toys
E
mergency rooms
treated 251,800
toy-related injuries
in 2015, and 44 percent
of these injuries were to the head and face area.
Nearly 85,000 injuries involved children under the
age of five. Reduce risk of injury by avoiding toys that
shoot or have parts that fly off. Consider not only
whether a toy is right for a child’s age prior to purchase, but also whether there is a risk of injury if a
smaller child gets his or her hands on it. Avoid purchasing toys with sharp or rigid points, spikes, rods,
or dangerous edges. Rule of thumb: If any part of a
toy can fit in a toilet paper roll, the toy is not appropriate for a child under three. Watch out for deflated
balloons or broken pieces; these are two of the most
common choking hazards for children.
Source: www.preventblindness.org/safe-toy-checklist